Blockchain & The Law Roundup: 8 January 2017

people are beginning to get back into the swing of things after the Christmas & New Year vacation. There is a fair amount of discussion over the wires about regulatory issues. From the US to the EU and onto India, we notice today.

Extract: We agree and believe the SEC should take it a step further and look to see how Blockchain can be incorporated to boost transparency and access to information beyond the convoluted stack of requirements today. Yes, the devil is in the details but it is time to have a 2020 Act, and not a 1933 Act, that matches the highly interconnected world of global trading and digital assets that is the future. Reardon’s recommendation is a good place to start. Hopefully, the SEC will choose to follow Reardon’s guidance.

Title: There Is No Such Thing as “the” Blockchain We’re using one word to describe a bunch of different technologies.

Extract: How do you quadruple your stock price without lifting a finger? In December 2017, the Long Island Ice Tea Corp. found an answer: Add the word blockchain to your company name. The beverage business made this move before doing much to justify its new branding as Long Blockchain Corp. Still, investors rewarded the company: Its stock rose 432 percent. That’s because blockchain, a piece of bitcoin’s technological plumbing, has recently become the buzzword of all buzzwords in the business world.

Title: Blockchain in government? Illinois lawmakers to explore benefits, possible regulation. After several new policies and pilots conducted by state agencies, lawmakers are now investigating the legal mechanisms needed to help the technology thrive inside government.

The British overseas territory, with an independent legal system from the UK, hopes to attract genuine companies with the newly brought about regulation. The GFSC website carries a notification, which states that effective January 1, 2018, companies involved in Distributed ledger Technology (DLT), or block chain technology, as it is commonly referred to, must be authorized by the Commission.

Extract: KOLKATA: A city-based lawyer has filed a public interest litigation with Calcutta High Court demanding a proper framework for cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin in the country, in the absence of which digital currencies were enjoying a free run in the underworld.
The lawyer also pointed out the link between cryptocurrency and dark web that, he alleged, aided money laundering and terror activities, apart from facilitating purchase of drugs.